Method for preparing a welting.



J. A. BROGAN METHOD FOR PREPARING A WELTING.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 19. EH4.

lutvntedticpt. 25, 1917.

2 SHEETSSHEET l.

JAMES A. BROGAN, OF LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 UNITED SHOEMACHINERY COMPANY, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

METHOD FOR PREPARING A WELTING.

1,241,089. Original application filed October 24,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES A. BROGAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Lawrence, in the county of Essex and Commonwealth ofMassachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inMethods for Preparing Weltings; and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

The present invention relates to an improved method for preparing awelting for use in making welt shoes.

In preparing the welting for use in making shoes known to the trade asGoodyear welt shoes, a stitch receiving groove is out in the lower orflesh face of the leather and a bevel is cut in the inner edge of theupper, or grain face of the leather. According to the general practiceheretofore, the groove has been out by means of a groovin knife whichoperates to remove a small, hal round strip of leather from the fleshside to form the groove, and the bevel has been cut by means of abeveling knife which operates to skive off the grain surface of theleather at the inner corner. A welting thus prepared has certaindisadvantages. The thin layer of grain fiber at the grain surface of theWelt is the most dense and strongestpart of the leather. In beveling thewelt by skiving off the grain surface, the grain fiber is cut away sothat the inseam, which often passes from the bottom of the groovethrough the skived surface of the welt, is supported only by the softerand weaker fibers forming the inner layers of the leather and it is notinfrequent for the inseam to be pulled through the welt. Moreover, itoften happens that in sewing the welt to the lasted shoe, the inseamwill be sewed so near to the inner edge of the welt that the skivedsurface is partially visible in the crease between the upper and thewelt. Where blacked welting is used, the appearance of the lightercolored skived leather is particularly noticeable and necessitatesblackening the crease when the shoe is finished. The removal of the halfround strip of material in cutting the groove, still further tends toweaken the portion of the welt which receives the inseam and allowsSpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 25, 191?.

1913, Serial No. 797,025. Divided and this application filed December19, 1914. Serial No. 878,177.

the stitches of the inseam to be more easily pulled through the welt.

' The objects of the present invention are to provide an improved methodof preparing a welting which is strong and perfectly suited for weltshoe manufacturlng and which will overcome the above mentioneddisadvantages.

In accordance with these objects a feature of the invention contemplatesthe provision of an improved method of preparing a welting in which thematerial through which the inseam passes has been consolidated bycompression. Preferably the welting is provided with a stitch receivinggroove in its under face near the inner edge and with a bevel at theinner margin of its upper face and the material which has beenconsolidated by compression. is located between the groove and thebevel. To consolidate the desired portion of the welting the stitchreceiving groove or the bevel or both may be wholly or partially formedby compressing the welting. To secure the greatest degree of ing,however, preferably both the groove and the bevel are formed withoutremoving any of the material of the strip.

In addition to the features above referred to, the present inventionalso consists'in a method of preparing a welting having oer tain novelfeatures hereinafter described and claimed, the advantages of which willbe obvious to those skilled in the art from the. following description:

In the drawing Figure 1 is a section of a leather strip which may beused in producing a welting when treated according to the methodembodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a section of the strip after having been subjected to one ofthe steps of the method which may be performed upon the strip inproducing the welting.

Fig. 3 is a section of the strip after being subjected to another stepof the method which may ,be performed upon the strip in producing thewelting.

Fig. 1 is asection of the completed welting after being treatedaccording to the preferred form of the method embodying the invention.

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of a machine those disclosed in my copendingapplication,

Serial No. 7 97,025, filed October 24, 1913 of which this applicationforms a division.

Reference is hereby made to the above mentioned application for adetailed description of-the construction and operation of parts'of themachine for making my improved welting, since only a brief descriptionof the machine is given in this application.

The welting illustrated in the drawing is made from a strip of leatherof substantially rectangular cross section and having a finished grainsurface as illustrated in Fig. 1. In the machine illustrated in thedrawings, the strip is first softened or tempered in the moisteningdevice 1 and is drawn past a slitting knife 2 which operates to cut aslit in its flesh face extending partially through the strip. From theslitting knife the strip passes between a pairof molding rolls indicatedgenerally by numeral 3 which operate to open and enlarge the slit, cutby the knife and to mold the bevel'on the inner margin of the grain faceof the strip. From the pair of rolls 3 the strip passes to a second pairof molding rolls indicated by numeral 4 which operate to complete theenlargement of the slit into a stitch receiving groove and to'completethe formation of the molded bevel on the inner margin of the strip. Asthe welting leaves the machine, a deflector 5 molds or bends the weltinglaterally toward its inner or beveled edge so that when the weltingdries it retains a permanent lateral deflection or bend.

The moistening device 1' by means of which the leather is tempered orsoftened so that it can be easilymolded is mounted on a bracket 10 atthe right hand side of the machine. This moistening device consists of awater tight tank 11 in which is held the roll of welting 12 to beprepared. The water at the tank 11 is held at a constant level by abarometric tank 14. The tempered welting passes from the moistening tankover a work table20 where it is slitted by the lmife 2 to assist thepressing rolls 3 and 4 to open up and form the groove and bevel. Thewelt is guided and properly positioned beneath the circular slittingknife 2 by means of edge gages which may be adjusted for difierentwidths of welting. The knife 2 is rotatably mounted on a shaft 24connected with the main driving mechanism, by means of an Oldhamcoupling in such a manner that as a belt shifter 42 is operated to shiftthe belt 43 from the tight pulley 45, Fig. 6, to the loose pulley 44,the knife 2 is automatically raised into inoperative position so that noobstruction is left to the introduction of a fresh piece of welting, asshown in Fig. 1, into the machine. When the belt shifter 42 is moved tobring the belt 43 back to the tight pulley, the knife is automaticallyforced down into the welt to make the" cut 51, shown in Fig. 2.

The die-rolls in forming the groove and bevel on the welt by theirpressing operation serve to feed the welt throughthe machine. Theserolls are so arranged that the slit welt of Fig. 2 passes from the knifeto the first set of die-rolls 3. This set of rolls comprises an upperroll 60 and lower roll 61 splined on shafts which are so geared togetherthat both of the rolls are positively drlvenat the same speed. Themanner in which the rolls 60 and 61 cotiperate to mold the welt isillustrated in Fig. 7. Near the forward end of the roll is an annularrib 81 which runs in and opens up the slit 51 formed by the knife 21This rib has a substantially V-shaped cross section, the point of the Vbeing round. t he side of the rib 81 is formed a conical or inclinedforwardly facing shoulder 82 which engages the flesh face of the weltbetween the groove and the inner edge. By the inner edge is meant theedge of the welt which is the inner edge when it is sewed in a shoe.Beyond the conical shoulder 82 the roll is reduced to form a flat,vertical, forwardly facing'shoulder 83. The lower roll 61 has acylindrical portion 85 which bears against the grain face of the weltopposite the rib 81 and part of the shoulde'r82 of the roll 60. At thefront of the cylindrical portion 82 is a conical or inclined backwardlyfacing shoulder 86 which operates against the grain surface of the weltto bevel the inner corner of the welt. Beyond the shoulder 86, the rollis enlarged to. form a vertical, flat backwardly flaring shoulder 87which fits closely against the forwardly facing shoulder 83 of the roll60. The tight fit between the shoulders 83 and 87 prevents thepossibility of the edge of the welt being pushed forwardly beyond theinclined shoulders 82 and 86. As shown in Figs. 3 and 7, the rib 81operates to open up or enlarge the slit 51. The rib 81 does this bycompressing the leather at the sides and bottom of the slit and formsthe partially completed stitch receiving groove 88, as shown in Fig. 3.The conical shoulders 86 and 82 cooperate to mold or deflect the inneredge of the welt to form the partially completed bevel 89, as shown inFig. 3.

The welt passes from the first set of moldmamas ing rolls 3 to through awelt guide which engages the welt at the front and rear edges and on topto hold the welt upon the table 20. The second pair of rolls indicatedat 4 comprises an upper roll 100 and lower roll 101. These rolls aremounted similarly to the first pair of rolls. The upper roll 100, likethe upper roll 60 has a rib 111, a conical shoulder 112 and a forwardlyfacing shoulder 113. The rib 111 is somewhat larger than the rib 81 andis substantially U-shaped in cross section. The lower roll 101, like thelower roll 61 has a cylindrical portion 115, a conical shoulder 116 anda rearwardly facing flat shoulder 117. The rib 111 operates to stillfurther enlarge the'slit formed by the knife 52 into a half round stitchreceiving groove 118 as shown in Fig. 4. The c0ni-- cal shoulders 116and 112 cooperate to complete the bevel 89 partially molded by the firstpair of rolls and form the complete bevel 119, as shown in Fig. 4:.

The welt passes from the second pair of molding rolls to a weltdeflecting guide 5 which comprises bottom and top plates 130 and 131 andan adjustable back gage 132. The leather is tempered when it reachesthis welt guide so that it is easily molded and retains the deflectiongiven by the guide after it becomes dry. The welt thus transversely benttoward its inner edge, more nearly conforms to the curvature of the shoeso that it may be more easily attached to the shoe in the sewingoperation, than a straight welt.

The pressing rolls and slitting knife are driven from the main shaft 68connected with the tight pulley 45. The shaft 68 carries a spur gear 67which actuates the gearing attached to the two sets of rolls so astodrive all of the rolls at the same speed.

The completed welt, as shown in Fig. 4, has an inseam receiving groove118 of substantially the same form as that heretofore formed by means ofa grooving knife. Instead of forming the groove by cutting out thematerial, the present machine operates to displace the material which.was cut out by the old method, the material which is displaced from thegroove being forced under pressure into the body of the welt. Instead ofskiving off the material at the inner margin of the grain face, asheretofore done, this material is displaced under pressure to form thebevel. The displacement of the material at the bevel causes aconsolidation of the leather and also causes the inner margin to bedisplaced angularly or bent toward the flesh face of the strip. Theoperation of molding the groove in the welt servesto compress orconsolidate under pressure the fibers of the leather thus strengtheningthe material forming the walls of the groove instead of weakening thewelt. The action of the second set of molding rolls the shoulders 86 and116 is also to compress or consolidate the leather through which theinseam stitches pass and so strengthen it to better resist the strain ofthe inseam. The inner edge of the welt, which in the method of groovingand bevelin heretofore employed, has been weakene by the removal ofmaterial, is, in the present invention, not weakened. As shown in Fig.4c, the grain material of the leather extends along the bevel of theextreme inner edge of the weft so that the entire face of the bevel iscovered by the grain fiber of the leather. Although it may be desirablefor the entire bevel to be covered with grain fiber, it is not necessaryas long as the grain fiber surface of the leather extends far enoughover the bevel to support the inseam. It is within the contemplation ofthe present invention to have the grain fiber surface extend onlypartially over the entire surface of the bevel. In the illustratedembodiment of the invention, the bevel 119, Fig. 4, has a flat grainsurface which is inclined to the plane of the welt. The presentinvention, however, is notv limited to its illustrated embodiment sincethe rolls may be so shaped that the bevel will not be fiat but havevarious contours. The important thing is to have the inner margin of thegrain side of the welt deflected toward the flesh side of the welt toform an inclined shoulder which fits against the upper of the lastedshoe at the shoulder of the insole. The term bevel as used in the claimsis, therefore, intended to be a term of description rather thanlimitation and to include within its purview the shoulder on the grainsurface of the welt strip whether it be a flat face like thatillustrated in the drawings or of some other contour. In describing thewelt, the term upper face is intended to refer to the face of the weltwhich lies uppermost and is visible in.

the-completed shoe. The term under face is applied to the face of thewelt which lies against the insole. The inner edge of the welt is theedge which is sewed to the upper and insole in the completed shoe.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated anddescribed, it is to be understood that the present invention is notlimited to its preferred embodiment but may be embodied in otherconstructions within the scope of the invention as set forth in thefollowing claims:

1. The method of preparing a strip of welting for use in the manufactureof welt shoes which consists in forming a longitudinal inseamstitch-receivin groove in its under face near the inner e ge, in forminga bevel at the inner margin of its upper face to fit against theshoulder of an insole, and in permanently compressing or consolidatingthe material between the groove and bevel through which the inseamissewed.

2. The method of preparing a strip of welting of indefinite length foruse in the manufacture of welt shoes which consists in applying pressureprogressively longitudinally of the strip to mold at the inner margin ofits upper face a permanent bevel to fit against the shoulder \Of aninsole.

3. The method of preparing a strip of welting of indefinite length foruse in the manufacture of welt shoes which consists in applying pressureprogressively longitudinally of the strip to mold a permanent stitchreceiving groove in the strip on its under face and near its inner edge.

4. The -method of preparing a strip of welting of a indefinite lengthfor use in the g Y manufacture of welt shoes which consists in applyingpressure progressively longitudinal-1y of the strip to mold a permanentstitch receiving groove in the strip on its under face and near itsinner edge and to mold at the inner margin of'the upper face of thestrip a permanent bevel to fit against the shoulder of an insole.

5. The method, of preparing 'a' .strip of welting of indefinite lengthfor use in the manufacture of welt shoes which consists in making a cutin the under face of the strip near its inner edge of less depth thanthickness of the strip and extending longitudinally of the strip and inapplying pressure progressively longitudinally of the strip to mold atsaid out a permanent stitch recelving groove in the strip and to mold atthe inner margin of the upper face of the strip a permanent bevel to fitagainst the shoulder of an insole.

7. The method of preparing a strip of welting of indefinite length foruse in the manufacturing of welt shoes which consists in molding thewelting under pressure to form a longitudinal stitch-receiving grooveinits under face near the inner edge and to form a bevel at the innermargin of its up per face, and in progressively deflecting or bendingthe welt strip laterally toward its inner edge.

8. The method of preparing a strip of welting for use in the manufactureof welt shoes Which comprises forming a longitudi nal stitch-receivinggroove in its under face and a bevel at the inner margin of its upperface, and progressively bending the welting strip laterally toward itsinner edge to form it in a shape convenient for use 1n shoemanufacture.-

9. The method of preparing a strip of welting of indefinite length foruse in the manufacture of welt shoes consisting in applying pressureprogressively longitudinally of the strip to mold at its inner edge thestitch receiving parts and progressively deflecting or bending the weltstrip laterally towardL its inner edge.

JAMES A. BROGAN.

Witnesses: I

Gno. E. STEBBINs, EDMUND G. BURDEN.

